How do you keep yours tidy?

[BLACKMASS]

My set-up isn’t in an ideal location and space is tight. I’m slowing changing mains leads and interconnects to sort lengths but I’m still struggling (well failing TBH) to tidy and separate the forest of cables.

I’m looking for tips and advice on tidying and separating cables. For instance. Is it safe to group and tie together mains leads?


Cheers
Rob

 

[Barrymagrec]

I would say yes, others will certainly disagree.

 

[gintonic]

I’m still struggling (well failing TBH) to tidy and separate the forest of cables

I have lost the will to bother these days. I can't see them, my system works. Sit back and listen to some music

 

[Bob McC]

I use home made hydras but apart from that I no longer bother.

 

[MikeMA]

I'm with GT on this. I have the occasional dusting, tidying up and cable dressing blitz, but cables seem to have a life of their own and slowly creep back to where they want to be, so I don't obsess about it.

 

[Yomanze]

Best thing to do is strip it all down, plug in the power leads first, then route the interconnects. Mine was a right rats nest until I did this.

 

[BLACKMASS]

Best thing to do is strip it all down, plug in the power leads first, then route the interconnects. Mine was a right rats nest until I did this.

Do you use anything to keep the cables separate?

 

[Tony L]

My kit is on a fairly wide table rather than more typical tall hi-fi furniture:

This makes life a lot easier IME. I route the mains cables underneath the table, then hook up the interconnects after that is all neat. No rats nest. I have the mains block visible as I turn the electronics on/of there as mostly the component switches are mainly on the back panel (I don’t buy the ‘leave everything powered-up 24/7’ bullsh*t).

 

[Yomanze]

Do you use anything to keep the cables separate?

No, just routing. My cables are quite stiff though. You could always use cable ties to tidy things up, the only thing I'd avoid is bundling power cables and interconnects together.

 

[Tony L]

Don’t coil stuff either as that’s how you make an inductor!

 

[wylton]

Mine's untidy at the back I must admit & because the racks are up against the wall, the cables are pretty much impossible to get at. To make matters worse, the system is quite complex, because it's active and I have loads of sources; 4 x turntables, CD player, cassette deck & streamer.

 

[hifi-dog]

Don’t coil stuff either as that’s how you make an inductor!

I have no option but to coil speaker cable under the rack but we are talking 3loops approx 1/2m across so can hurt can it?

 

[Yomanze]

I have no option but to coil speaker cable under the rack but we are talking 3loops approx 1/2m across so can hurt can it?

Nah, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Salamander]

Looks neat Tony. although with only 5 boxes it does make it easier. I've got 10 boxes [4 psu's] and some rather stiff cables which can be rather difficult, just do my best and not worry too much. I will disagree with the leave them on 24/7 though, mine are only turned off when I am going away [manufacturer recommended]. I do try and dust at least once a week.

 

[gintonic]

I have lost the will to bother these days. I can't see them, my system works. Sit back and listen to some music

actually in thinking about it, I did dress one cable with something cat resistant - for some unknown reason Marley, decided it would be fun to chow down on the earth cable coming from the TT - so I dressed it with some flexible conduit.

 

[tiggers]

I do my best to sort out the cables as neatly as I can but it's like fighting a losing battle when you include speakers, power, interconnects and then add on things like network cables and Sky antenna cables. I just try to ignore the mess and listen to the music these days.

 

[formbypc]

Murphy's Law dictates that if you spend a happy hour or so dressing the mains cables, then arranging the interconnects around them, that something - something will go wrong within a short while, forcing you to undo all the good work just done.

 

[The Chap]

Mine looks a bit of mess behind the supports but there are no signal cables running parallel with mains cables and none touching. If you can achieve this with your cables hidden you should be OK.

 

[Getgaff]

This was my original rats nest before I moved my kit into an adjacent room:

 

[Marky-Mark]

Mine is a mess concealed by a piece of black velvet backing attached with velcro across the back of a mid-century coffee table doing support duty for 8 components. I occasionally drop something back there and it's then I'll move an interconnect or two from a power cable. And formbypc is 100% correct.